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painting a piggy

Today I'm releasing a new pattern. Although, releasing may be the wrong word, since this pattern is a little piggy and he's clearly being held behind a fence!

There have been times when I've been able to create new patterns all the time...sometimes several in a month! This is not one of those times, so even just getting one new mini pattern out into the world feels like an accomplishment. This one really did seem to draw itself though, and I've been very excitedly talking about it on Twitter and Instagram!

When I had the pattern ready to stitch, I felt like outlining the piglet in pink wasn't enough, but fill stitches would be too much. Piggies are soft pink, so he needed a soft color to him, and watercolor tinting was the look I wanted. You can find my full watercolor tinting tutorial here.

Using freezer paper, trace the part of the pattern where the piggy shows: The full head and front feet (all connected), the trunk that shows between the fence, and the back feet.

Then, cut those sections out of the paper to create a mask. It's really important on something like this to be accurate so that the color will only be in the area of the pattern where you want it to show.

Test your watercolor paint on a swatch of fabric so you can get an idea of how it will come out. You may even want to let it dry first, because the color can change.

Next, iron the freezer paper stencil onto the fabric and fill in the openings with watercolor paint. I mixed some pink, orange and white to get the color I wanted and even let there be some areas of different shading. Of course, this is up to you! You can make your piggy as bold or as subtle as you want.

When the paint has completely dried, peel off the freezer paper and iron the paint to help set the color. It won't be entirely permanent though, so don't plan on washing this.

Trace the pattern over the tinting, making sure that you line it all up. This is where your accuracy on the freezer paper mask really makes a difference. (By the way, I made the mistake of using a transfer pencil on this. But I'll discuss that in a later post...)

All that's left to do is stitch the pattern! I used six strands for most of the design, and three strands for the smaller details.

Don't you just want to give him a little hug? I once got to visit with some very, very young piglets and they are just the cutest things ever!

I've always wanted to "color" some of the embroidery patterns I find and wondered how to pull it off without the wet paint bleeding outside the lines. Thanks for the how-to. And the pale "baby-pig-pink" makes all the difference in this cute little piece. BTW, there are some colored pencils made for fabrics out there too. Use them dry or with a little water the color is more intense. I haven't used them yet, but sounds like it would be fun to try with embroidery. My mom has a set "somewhere" and when we come across them I'll give it a try.

copyright

unless otherwise noted, all content is copyright 2004-2018 mollie johanson, and should be kept for personal and cottage-industry use only. if you have questions or would like to publish any of my work, please ask first.